Muse/News: Layers Beyond, Art Popsicles, and Butter Heads

SAM News

“5 great reasons to see Seattle Asian Art Museum’s new exhibition”: Here’s Gemma Alexander for the Seattle Times on Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms.

“The immersive, multimedia exhibition is small—a casual viewer could survey the handful of pieces in minutes—but it’s one that rewards a more thoughtful approach, revealing new layers and details the longer you look. Each artist relates classical forms with timely themes, addressing topics from street protest to quarantine.”

Crosscut’s Margo Vansynghel appeared on Kim Malcolm’s weekly KUOW spot for arts picks, highlighting Anthony White: Limited Liability, which is now on view at SAM.

“I love that there’s so many symbols in it, so many things that you can decode. You can kind of keep coming back to the work. I kind of compare it to being like a digital era archaeologist.”

Thrillist on the “Coolest Museums in Seattle,” including the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and a ton of our favorite partner organizations. 

Lonely Planet’s “8 best beaches in Washington State” includes the pocket beach at the Olympic Sculpture Park, noting that “at low tide, you (and the kids) can explore tidepools brimming with marine life, from sea stars to chitons, all within view of the Space Needle.”

SAM Remix: The clouds didn’t keep you beautiful people away! We were thrilled to bring back the late-night art experience to the Olympic Sculpture Park last Friday–and thrilled for the shoutouts from The Stranger, The Ticket (new site alert!), Seattle Met, and Seattle Times.  

Local News

“Here’s what it’s like to walk around Lake Washington in a single day”: A recommendation for a Very Long Walk by Paul Constant for the Seattle Times. 

Patheresa Wells for South Seattle Emerald on YOLTEOTL Press, an Indigenous printmaking and traditional arts studio that will open in Ballard in early September.

“Where Art Tastes Like Himalayan Blackberries and Lemon Balm”: Jas Keimig of the Stranger on the outdoor art-tech show AUGMENT Seattle and the standout AR piece by Nina Vichayapai (whose work was also part of SAM Remix last Friday!). 

“What’s delightful about the piece is that even though the garden of PNW plants is virtual, it still grounds me in reality. Vichayapai’s personal rendition of Seattle’s summer made me think about the foliage and smells and textures I associate with the season.”

Inter/National News

Via Elaine Velie for Hyperallergic: “The Fascinating Things People Leave Behind in Library Books.”

“Why Is It So Hard to Find ‘Ethical’ Cardboard?” Janelle Zara for Artnet on the monopoly in art-world shipping. 

Christina Morales of the New York Times invites you to meet Gerry Kulzer, the new butter sculptor at the Minnesota State Fair.

“Mr. Kulzer, an art teacher at Eden Valley-Watkins High School who specializes in sculpture, spent two years shadowing Ms. Christensen in order to learn the intricacies of working with cold butter, which is harder to manipulate than the soft-water-based clay he’s accustomed to…Teaching is the second-best job in the world, he said. ‘The first is carving butter heads.’”

And Finally

Washington State’s “60 most timeless inventions.”

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Natali Wiseman.